The Arcade Cabinet In The Basement
by ItsMeRomaaan
Summary: Mordecai and Rigby were asked to clean a basement, leading to the discovery of an arcade cabinet that they never heard of before.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm** **back! Finally I can write here again. What's sad is that my stories got erased since I didn't open any of them for a long time. This story would be a barn burner so that I can refresh myself to writing stories again.**

* * *

 **The Arcade Cabinet In The Basement**

* * *

A dull Tuesday morning dawned on the park workers who were waiting for their park manager to arrive. As they tried to beat boredom while waiting except for Rigby who slept through it, a familiar car passed in front of them. No one was surprised to see Benson march out of the car. Mordecai, who noticed that Rigby is still asleep waked him up in an obiquitous manner, punching him.

"Aww! Wha- oh" Rigby said as he become aware that he is in the worst part of their daily routine.

"Dude! I just had the weirdest dream, you were there and -"

He was trying to tell a story when Benson interrupted him with a cough. It was a normal cough that would capture someone's attention, their attention.

"Sorry guys, I got saddled in a traffic jam" Benson said as he brought out his clipboard.

"Muscleman and Fives, you're in snack bar duty"

"Skips, you are going to fix the broken lights in the gazebo"

"Pops, you're cleaning the house"

As they walked away, Mordecai and Rigby were the only ones left.

'"Alright, Mordecai and Rigby, follow me" Benson said.

The duo followed him to a dusty basement behind the carnival tent that won't be taken down anytime soon.

"Whoa" the duo muttered as they toured their eyes around the area.

Boxes are everywhere. The dust collection was thick enough to tell that it was untouched for decades. Benson was coughing after he tried to wipe off the dust resting on the light switch. The lights shone as each aisle was lit with a distinct orange tone, leaving the duo in awe.

"This is the old basement, we are cleaning this place up to put stuff here that came from the attic" Benson said as he wiped his dusty hands.

"What about the attic?" Rigby asked.

"There are still no plans, anyway I want this basement to be cleaned by the end of the day or you'll be in toilet duty for the next month" Benson replied.

"Can we take a mini break first?" Mordecai meekly asked.

"What? No you can't! Start now or you'll deal with something more horrible!" Benson replied as his head went from pink to red in a matter of seconds. He then went back up to go deal with other things. Left in the basement are Mordecai and Rigby.

"Aggh! What's his problem? He always gives us the worst jobs, I mean it was awesome before he said to finish this today!" Rigby complained as he kicked a dust bunny forming beside a box.

"C'mon dude, let's just finish this. Besides I don't want to deal with cleaning toilets again" Mordecai replied as he walked down the aisle of the fairly large basement.

Rigby just gave a grunt as he followed him.

"Alright, let's wipe the dust off them then we'll move the boxes" Mordecai said as he handed Rigby a wiping cloth and a feather duster.

"Aggh, fine" Rigby said as he grabbed them and separated to clean faster.

They managed to pull it off in less than two hours, which is faster than they anticipated. What's next is moving the boxes. They started with the bigger boxes to leave the smaller boxes. As they moved the boxes, they found interesting mementos like old game cartridges, old game cabinet marquees, tokens from a defunct arcade, and a working radio that helped them pump their tired bodies with endless alternative rock singles from a familiar radio station.

Six hours passed from their first box the place began to look cleaner. They also began to realize that the basement was an old arcade. The neon lights' tint were already fading, wallpapers were tattered and covered with pen signatures dating back the eighties, and a sign for the arcade was revealed after three boxes were lifted from its spot.

"Game Barn?" Rigby muttered.

"Whoa! My father once told me about this place. He said they were the best arcade that time until an incident happened" Mordecai replied.

"Well then what happened?" Rigby asked.

"I don't know, my father didn't tell me"

"Oh, but since this is an old arcade, maybe there are some cabinets left?"

"That may not be the case dude"

"What do you mean?"

"Just take a look around, there aren't that many boxes left"

"Does this mean ...?"

The duo then sprinted back up to check some boxes that were kind of heavy. The boxes left to check dwindled as they found nothing but disappointment. They went back to the basement to get the job finally done.

"That was a waste"

"How can you be an arcade but can't have any game cabinets?"

"C'mon, let's clean this place up"

Rigby whined as he hastily lifted some boxes, with some boxes falling to the floor.

"Dude!"

"Aggh, whatever, I'm working on it see!"

As he tried to pick up some of the boxes, he somehow hit a fairly large object draped with a black tarp.

"What the heck?"

The seemingly mysterious object left the duo wondering what it was. Rigby then dropped the boxes to get a hold of the tarp to reveal it. Mordecai tried to stop him.

"Dude! Can you just do the boxes?"

"Yeah yeah! I'm on it!" Rigby muttered as they rushed out on the remaining boxes until nothing remained on sight.

They were surprised to learn that the clock striked at ten in the evening. With nothing else left to do, they hung out for the rest of the night inside the basement. Mordecai even managed to get sodas and pizza from the house for them to enjoy. Endless tunes of metal bands blared on the tiny radio they found earlier. They tried to make the few cans last to past midnight as they riffed air guitars, seemingly recreating the flashy strums of the guitarist from what they're hearing.

As midnight creeped upon, the duo were nothing but a mess. The recently cleaned basement were littered with few soda cans and pizza crusts on the ground.

Mordecai and Rigby did rock-paper-scissors to determine who would go back the house and not help the other clean the mess. After seven ties, Mordecai won and left him. Rigby tried to whine about it but Mordecai just walked off as he was already tired from all the work. Rigby was then left alone in the basement, with the radio. With the disk jockey finally signing off, Rigby proceeded to shut the thing off. He then sat on the cold concrete, as he sighed disappointmemt as he still needs to clean the mess they made. To him, he deserved a way better break than just drinking soda on a lonely basement. He then remembered something , the object draped with a black tarp.

A quick glance around the empty basement heavily was all enough for him to finally clear the intrigue behind it despite the fact that he's the only one between them fascinated by it.

He went near the mysterious object and got hold of the tarp that concealed it. Unraveling it, only one word escaped Rigby's mouth.

"Whoa"

It was an arcade cabinet. Still in awe, he looked around the cabinet.

"No artwork at all? What is this?" he muttered.

The cabinet only had a single color, which is black. The marquee was boarded up so the name is hidden except the letter "P", which appears to be the first letter of the name of the game. There was only two things left for him to do, check if it still works and play it if it works.

After a search around the cabinet, he was disappointed to find no plug for the game. He just sat and leaned on the side of the machine to relieve his disappointment.

"Man, this could've been awesome" he muttered.

Seconds after, he felt a slight vibration from the cabinet. He was startled by it as he crawled away from the cabinet. Maintaining a safe distance of a meter and a half from it, he thought of something.

 _"Is this thing infested with rats or something?"_

He went closer to take a better look at it. To his surprise, he saw the machine's screen lit.

"What?"

He wondered how did it turn on without the plug. He didn't thought that it might be risky or dangerous since Mordecai and him dealt with way worse than this. He never hesitated again as he clutched the only joystick present on the control pad. There was a single button beside it. The green colored joystick and button were the only things in the cabinet that was painted in a different color aside from black. His attention span was enough for him to ignore the title screen.

"Alright, how do I play this thing" Rigby muttering as he mashed the single button and rocked the joystick in different directions. At first he didn't understood how to play it, but after playing it for a few minutes he finally grasped the idea of the gameplay.

The game needed very minimal skills to play it. The game's graphics were presented with green lines forming a shape resembling a tube. He was supposed to control an object moving around the tube. The single button is used to fire at opponents. At first he thought that the game's trash but he's starting to enjoy the game.

"This is surprisingly...good?"

After beating another round, he looked at his wristwatch and was surprised that he was playing longer than he thought.

"3am?" he muttered.

He wasn't feeling tired or sleepy at all. Maybe it's his thing since raccoons are nocturnal and they are mostly active at night. He continued playing despite its repetitive gameplay.

Beating round after round, he needed to stop. Nature was calling.

He took his hands off the gamepad but can't move from his position. He tried to walk away but he was coming back to the cabinet. He thought that he should shut it off, but there was no way since it just turned on by itself. After trying to walk, he failed as he held the joystick again. He peed himself. That didn't distract him though as he continued on playing. He briefly thought that he can clean it after playing.

As he continued playing, the game acted funny. The graphics would twist, the sound would distort, and the cabinet would shake. All these didn't stop him from playing it. He didn't stop until the cabinet turned off by itself.

"Wuhhaa-wha?"

Rigby blabbered nonsense until he smacked the cabinet. He was able to shake the cabinet despite his size. He didn't stop until it turned on. He started hearing someone whispering at him.

 _"Play the game"_


	2. Chapter 2

_"Play the game"_

 _"Play the game"_

 _"Play the game"_

 _"Play the game"_

His senses came back. He realized that he wasn't himself when he was playing the game. He walked away from the system and tried to get out. He made it outside and locked the door.

As he walked a single step, he noticed that he can't move due to the small space he was into. He was in fact, hallucinating. He thought that he went outside but in reality, he just went in a tool room which is literally small enough to fit him. This triggered his claustrophobia as he began to panic and frantically tried to open the door. Needless to say, he's gonna die if he stayed there longer. Sweat began to shower him as he thought of an idea that may save his life. He waved his hands around and tried to find something that can help him open the door. He found a shovel and tried to smack the door despite being cramped inside the room.

After a struggle with the door, he managed to open it and see nothing but the game turned on. The graphic is still a mess. The sound being played was his own voice screaming and panicking inside the room. He's lost it. Still wielding the shovel, he used it to batter the cabinet to pieces. It was indestructible due to his weak strength. He only scratched the black paint that covered the cabinet, which revealed something way more horrifying.

The cabinet was dripping with blood, real blood. Rigby was shocked and fazed with the sight of a cabinet just bleeding on its own. The cabinet's screen began to split in half, and a hand resembling those seen in demonic films popped out from it and tried to grab Rigby. Rigby then sprinted to the door to escape. The hand then followed pursuit as it successfully captured him by his foot.

He's getting dragged to the cabinet so he tried to fight back using only the shovel. He smacked the arm but it won't let go. Rigby tried to hold on by wedging the shovel between the screen but the screen shattered. There was no escape.

After getting Rigby, the demonic cabinet's screen was fixed on its own as the cracks on the glass began to disappear. Black paint began to streak down the body of the cabinet. All of a sudden, the cabinet looks newer than before. The cabinet then jumped on its own to its original position, but because of the force of the jump the wood that covered the marquee fell to the ground.

* * *

 ** _8:01 am_**

"Rigby? Rigby! Are you sleeping here?!"

Mordecai knocked on the door but there was no answer. He then decided to get in since the door is not locked. As expected, the basement was still littered with soda cans. He immediately knew Rigby didn't clean it. He found the tool room open with only a shovel inside.

"Oh great, I'm supposed to clean this now"

After picking up the soda cans. A loud bang freaked the living hell out of him. He dropped all the cans in terror as he was definitely frightened with it. He looked around to see if Rigby was around.

Turning his back, he saw an arcade cabinet. It was already turned on.

"Whoa! A game!"

He went near it to see it. He read the marquee.

"Polybius? I've never heard of this game before"

He was fascinated by it and got hold of the joystick.

"Alright, one game wouldn't hurt" as he pressed the button.

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 **There ya go! My comeback story! I don't know if this is good but I hope you'd enjoy this new story. And Polybius ain't real. I may make a prequel out of this but I don't know if that would help build this story but for now, this is the end.**

 **Another thing is my stories! I'm going to rewrite them all including the chapter updates so it may take till the next year to rewrite them all but yeah I'm hyped with it woo!**

 **Feel free to hate this story as its freeeeee lol. Anyways see you soon!**


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